Battlefield Jasper: book 3
by Someone who isn't important
Summary: Sorry the first chapter ends suddenly, I've been having this problem where it crashes when i save the doc. Anyway, the story continues! Leave REVIEWS. Pwease? I'll give you a cookie! P.S. I need OC's for my big projects, look at 'A Human Humphrey for the OC sheet and description of what's going on.
1. Chapter 1

**Yay first chapter book three! This is the first book to include Halo in any real capacity. Wasting time doing awesome author's notes is fun, but I need to get down to business.**

**Battleground: Jasper book 3**

**Chapter 1- The Return of an old hero**

**Unknown P.O.V.**

We had been drifting for years, the cold of space had frozen John in his armor. By my clock it had been over two-hundred years. Ahead a small dot was growing in the stellar-scape (the landscape of space) I hurriedly turned on the rescue beacon in the Mjolnir armor. The dot grew larger and larger, until it resolved itself into a giant ship. But it couldn't be... if my analysis was correct it was at least twice as large as one of the Covenant super-carriers!

However, it wasn't Covenant either so maybe it could help us. If they could defrost the Chief there would be at least one Spartan left. I didn't know if the Human race had continued creating Spartans, probably not. I looked forward to seeing a human face after all that time drifting in space. We were pulled towards the ship until a hatch in the side opened, and we slipped into darkness.

Several minutes later another hatch opened on the inside and a trio of figures appeared carrying some weapons I wasn't very familiar with. As they drew closer, the lights were activated. Standing there were three wolves. They weren't wolves as the wolves in my database, more like wolves who adapted to standing upright and using technology.

I decided my best chance was to lay low for now, so I simply did nothing for what seemed like any eternity. It was only a few minutes though. They put the Mjolnir through decontamination before it was put in a large room. The room was about sixty degrees Fahrenheit warmer than the rest of the ship. Even so, it must have had the specific purpose of defrosting people because the rate of melting was slow enough that the Chief had a 99.637% chance of living through it.

A few minutes later gasp from inside the armor brought my thoughts back to the current situation. I projected my voice to him. "Hello again Chief. It's been a while, in fact it's been over two-centuries." John started moving around, the ice cracked on the outside as the suit warmed up.

"Cortana? Where are we?" I sighed aloud, "I really don't know Chief, all I know is that we are on a ship that's about twice the size of a covenant super-carrier that's inhabited by a sentient race of-" I was cut off when the hatch opened, admitting a old-looking gray wolf into the room.

**John-117 "Master Chief" P.O.V.**

Wolves? A sentient race of wolves? The first wolf was accompanied by two guards, one a dark brown and the other was a reddish color. A string of barks and yips, seemed to be how they talked. "Cortana, can you translate their speech?" "Hmm... give me a moment." A few seconds later I got a bland, "We have already detected the AI present in your armor and are attempting to fix any problem with communications between us. I'm Rear Admiral Langstonwho might you be?"

" John, my name is John." I hadn't used that name in such a long time. But since it had apparently been two-centuries since the Ark, I was no longer a UNSC soldier. Or was I? If I could live a civilian life, would want it? After thirty years of fighting, could I really settle down and be a civilian?

Cortana translated the sentence into as good a translation as she could. "John? A very good name, one of my pups is named John. Nice kid always running off with his girlfriend to do this or that. He loves to go dig up whatever remains of those old war sights. But anyway, no need for your AI to do the talking now. Our translator has figured out your language."

My Mjolnir armor was wet and it being wet on the inside bothered me, the water in the helmet alone was making my head itch. I removed my helmet, and the wolves stepped back, they had to have been wondering why I didn't have an extended muzzle helmet. There were whispers "A human!?" "I thought they fled the galaxy over two centuries ago?" That armor, I've seen it in the old records... that's it Mjolnir armor! It's a Spartan!" "A Spartan? No, there aren't any of them left. We nailed that last one on Taurontus 12."

They all interested me, especially the last one. "Cortana, access their archives. I want a full brief on what this ship has done." Cortana responded a few seconds later. "Chief, I _can't_. The shipboard AI is so much more advanced than I am. It's smart too, not the typical "dumb" AI we put in our ships. It's been specifically designed to both be good at combat, and at cyberwarfare. Chief it's too advanced, the small amount of attention it's giving me is enough to stop me."

_Who are these people? They say that humans fled, fled what? They killed at least one Spartan, there must have been extenuating circumstances. No Spartan went down against anything besides the Covenant!_ A paw was extended to me and I shook it, when we released Langston signaled his men out. "Well John, lets see if we can find you any decent quarters."

Eventually we reached a door that was a little small for me to walk through standing, what wasn't on this giant of a ship? "Sir, how many wolves are on this particular vessel?" His face looked thoughtful for a second. "After the recent battle damage we took... I'd say about forty-six thousand wolves fit and ready for action. Oh yes! That reminds me, welcome to the 'Star Razer' Master Chief Petty Officer John."

"How do you know my rank?" I wanted to slap myself for the question as soon as I asked it. "We used our own AI to access your own files, it wasn't really much of a fight when she was focused on trying to breach our security. Oh, you can find a holo-projector in your room. Fit to talk with your AI." I asked if I could talk more to him about the ship later and then he went along his merry way.

After looking around my new quarters I discovered that the bunk was a little small but still comfortable. I had removed my armor and plugged Cortana into the holo-projector. "Okay, what do you know about these guys?" Cortana's holographic form appeared on the surface. "Not that much really... hmm interesting. The Rear- Admiral just sent word back to command about you. Oh my God..."

Though Cortana never really restrained herself on profanity, the sense of pure awe in her projected voice made me curious. "What is it? The Covenant?" her hologram was ablaze with numbers and letters. It was glowing bright enough from the amount she was working to make me look away. "No, I just got into their damage reports and outer surveillance. I think you'd better have a look at this."

Cortana disappeared and was replaced by a list of battle damage. It looked like a lot of damage had been taken on the port side. Laser batteries one through fourteen, missile tubes one through eighteen, plasma batteries one through twenty. The list went on and on detailing every bit of damage they had taken.

"Okay Cortana, why did you need to show me this?" instead of answering she flicked the holographic projector over to the outer surveillance, on the starboard side it looked like a good healthy ship on the port side... nothing. The whole port side had been destroyed, the only thing left was trailing metal and wires.

It was a shocking discovery, these people had been fighting a force that could do something like this? Sure the Covenant could, but then the ship would be killed. It looked like this ship was made to handle this though as it's reactor hadn't blown. Which got me thinking about what this things reactor was, it had to be huge to power this behemoth.

It had been a few hours since Langston left when a _beep!_ came from a small desk in the back of the room. A small red button was flashing there, I pressed it. The door slid open and there stood the Rear- Admiral, he invited me to come with him for a grand tour, so we began the long walk around what remained of the ship.

**Humphrey's P.O.V.**

It was the night I got back, Eve had stayed away from me the whole time. I wondered why, but I didn't want to lose a minute with Kate. So, I put it in the back of my mind and spent the whole night with my mate. Well, almost the whole night.

At about 3 AM a beeping sound woke me. I knew what it meant, but Kate didn't. She simply covered her head with a pillow, I rolled out of bed faster than I meant to. Ending in a tumble to the metal grating below.


	2. All stories broadcast!

**Guy's I've been really busy. I'm working on what? Six stories? I've only posted four of them though. I haven't even finished the first chapters for them. SO, I will be posting a poll on my account. There you can vote on which story you think I should focus on. I will not post ANY updates until I have received at least ten poll answers!  
**


	3. PM me if you like the long flashback!

**Second chapter book three, woo hoo! Ugh, I'm busy all the time now. It'll probably be short and I'm sorry about that, but I've been really busy and pretty much only writing at night, which only gives me about twenty minutes to write. * These represent places where a note has been placed that will be explained at the end of the chapter. I really wanted to write a good detailed space-fight so here it is. I also wanted to expand upon 'First encounter' from chapter 2 book one, I mentioned it but never got around to explaining it. I bet you thought meant that it was first recontact with humans.**

_**Previously...**_

_At about 3 AM a beeping sound woke me. I knew what it meant, but Kate didn't. She simply covered her head with a pillow, I rolled out of bed faster than I meant to. Ending in a tumble to the metal grating below._

**Humphrey's P.O.V.**

As I hit the hard grates, I remembered another time when this had happened. Of course, Kate hadn't been there, but I was glad she wasn't.

_**Flashback: 12 years ago Situation to be later described as, "First Contact"**_

_It was late in the ship's artificial night, the lights of the halls and various sub-corridors dimmed. My head resting on the hard "pillow" * issued to anyone below flag rank *. But, suddenly a loud beeping followed by a louder klaxon shook me awake. I was struggling to wake myself up, and answer the call coming in on my Quarter's communication device._

_As my paw reached for the small device sitting on a table by my bunk, the first of the Capital Missiles * scored home on the unshielded armor of our ship. We had been, as the old saying goes: "Caught with our pants down." It was not pleasant._

_The Missile exploded three hundred kilometers from the hull, a long range on planet but closer than point-blank in space combat. If the payload had just been explosives we would have come out fine, but that wasn't the case, not here. The explosions put an instant surge into the laser generators on the front of the missile, ending in not one, or two, or three, but fifteen separate over-charged laser to knife their way into the unprotected ship. _

_One wiped away a cluster of counter-missile batteries, another took out a plasma turret still heating up. The rest wiped away hundreds of wolves, circuits and connections. One sank into the hole already created by a previous laser and deep into the battleship "Gemini". It went straight and true, boring a thirty-centimeter hole straight through the ship's fourth Fission reactor._

_However, the sheer force of the hits shook the whole hull, knocking me out of the bunk and onto the metal grating below. I stood up quickly and threw on my uniform, then put the coat around my shoulders without bothering to fully out it on. "Alert, all personnel. Report to battle-stations. We are under attack by an unknown enemy. All personnel, report to battle-stations immediately."_

_The lift wasn't nearly fast enough as it raced to the bridge. When I got there I headed immediately to my station. Tactical, or 'Guns' as it was affectionately called by many captains. Which was exactly what it was, fire-control, targeting systems, shields, and missile defense. All fed through into this station._

_The younger Ensign seated stood up as I approached. Technically I was superior officer so he should have saluted, but I didn't care in the middle of a battle military courtesy takes too long and gets people killed. "Lieutenant, we have multiple ships on the extreme edge of our missile envelope *. Radar and Lidar * have picked up multiple missile contacts."_

"_How many?" He checked after I asked the question, " Jerald estimates... fourteen thousand" My jaw dropped, there was no way a few ships could haul that many missiles. The Gemini herself only held five hundred. " FTL sensors got a solid lock sir, ten enemy ships. Sizes vary from Battleship to cruiser size. "Captain, what are your orders?"_

_I turned to the Captain, Langston. He was an upstart brat from an old military family. His father was the Admiral-Justicate *, the only reason Langston had gotten so high was the influence that his father provided, and that most people who got in his way were bussed out of service. I had almost been kicked from the Naval Academy for beating him in a 'random battle sim' *._

_But that didn't matter right now, and I had no time for such thoughts. Langston however was sitting frozen in the command chair, sweating and crying without a sound. The shields had been brought up, but the next few missiles had brought them down enough that the sixth missile that hit scored at least six lasers in the hull._

_Legally, all I could do without orders from a superior officer was get the shields up. But when those six lasers hit, Langston went crazy. "Get us out of here! Retreat!" We were the only ship in-system at the moment, about twelve hours from orbit around the new found world we had named Landonburg. Since Langston had gone crazy I ignored his orders._

"_Where's McWright?" He was the Executive officer, the next in line for command. "McWright was in the fourth reactor's engine room checking up personally." I closed my eyes and grimaced, hoping his death had at least been quick. "Who's next in command?" the Midshipwolf at the Comms. station spoke up, "You are sir." My eyes shot open, _me? _I wasn't used to flag rank, the only time I had experienced it was that same sim where I beat Langston._

_However, in this battle I had no time to argue. "Okay, get the counter-missile batteries up and running. Go through any evasion patterns you can, when _that_ arrives." I said pointing to the rash of white icons on the ships sensor screen indicating the mass of missiles headed our way. "Who gave you authority to give orders on my ship?"_

_Langston's challenge drew everyone's eyes to me waiting for my response. "Section three article two paragraphs one through two of the The Articles of War, 'If the current commanding officer of any military ship, unit, squad, or fleet is deemed as mentally unfit for duty by his/her junior officers the next in command is required to relieve him/her of their duties. Does anyone here disagree with me in that the captain is mentally unfit for duty?" There were head-shakes and some "No sir, I agree sir."'s._

"_Captain, on a majority vote of all present, I deem you unfit. You are hereby relieved of duty." He sputtered a few times before being hauled off by a couple of Marines. "Okay... so what do we do after the missile salvo?" I looked at the wolf who was the newest head tactical officer, " What you are going to do is return fire," My vision switched over to Astrogation, "What you are going to do is plot a course for... 294 by 730 for three hours." This received a stare, but it was done. Then, we entered Hell itself..._

_The counter-missile batteries spewed out short ranged countermissiles * which intercepted at least four-thousand of the storm headed towards us, mostly by chain reaction. Shorter ranged lasers, supported by the main laser, and plasma cannons picked off six-thousand more. At least two thousand collided with another of their salvo-mates and destroyed themselves, Another five hundred strayed off course, four-hundred were sucked off by Electronic decoys, and three hundred smashed into the shields before they detonated and simply disintegrated. That left around eight-hundred of the deadly projectiles to detonate._

_The beams broke through by sheer force of numbers, bent and distorted a little, but through. They wiped away, gun emplacements, offensive missile tubes, wolves, and internal hardware. A whole section of the starboard side simply disappeared, while other laser sunk deep in the hull. One such laser blew a coolant valve in engineering five, spraying the sub-zero blue liquid onto people, machines, and pipes. Everywhere it touched things froze, and the section was turned into a ice cube except... for the fission reactor that was suddenly not getting rid of any heat..._

"_Sir, we have a problem in Engineering-" The young wolf had enough time to look down and see the bottom half of his body suddenly gone. Then he tipped over as the atmosphere was sucked out of the bridge. "Helmets, now!" All the uniforms were airtight, and the large helmets that completed them could recycle enough air for one occupant for about two hours. By then, the air would be thick and hard to breathe. The young ensign who had lost the bottom half of himself was screaming, he wouldn't die of the normally fatal wound, the laser which had cut him in half had cauterized the wound, stopping the blood._

_Then, as the last of the air was sucked out, his eyes exploded. Then he began to bleed from the mouth, skin and eye sockets, I turned away as he exploded leaving a cloud of red mist and orange fur as all that remained. However, as another wolf took his place my attention was ripped over there. "Sir, Reactor five is about to go critical, Maria * estimates ten minutes!" Now we had two reactors down, if we lost one more than I had a choice to make: Engines and life-support, or Engines and weapons. _

"_Roll ship and eject the reactor on a ballistic course towards the nearest enemy ship." We had the newest inertial compensator and artificial gravity available, but still, watching the floor become a wall was very nauseating. Then, it got worse as we returned fire in missile salvos as we usually did. "Tactical, roll the pods." The ship rolled sideways back to level, then shuddered as the first salvo burst from what remained of our starboard broadside, then the ship rolled over upside down and I was standing on the ceiling. The ship shuddered again as the undamaged port broadside launched, then the process repeated swiftly. The ship rolling over and over and over firing missile tubes as fast as it could._

_**Flashback ends** **I don't want it to but your probably like: "Get on with the story and away from this boring scene." If you liked the scene PM so I can give you the list of books an authors that have inspired my space-combat writings. Also, if you want I can give you lists of books that inspired my less awesome ground combat.**_

**Now back to reality, and out of Italics, YAY!**

The beep broke me from my memories, I grabbed for the small box and walked outside. I was only in a new shirt and a light pair of shorts, and it was cold. The box had for buttons on the top, a screen showed which end was the front, while a little red button marked "Purge" marked the back. On the top the buttons in order from left to right were: End, Hold, Audio only receive, Receive.

I pressed the second button from the right, and the person on the other end began to speak. "Sir, we have completed repairs on the aft hanger. Just in time too, priority call, they want you on the next courier to the 'Star Razer'. Special request by Rear-Admiral..." I cut him off before he finished, " Langston, I know. Okay, get your ship up and running I'll be there tomorrow morning."

I depressed the end button and walked back inside, laying down next to Kate before drifting back into my dreams.

**I'm sorry I ended this one so suddenly too, but I really just wanted to get it up so you wouldn't think I abandoned this. I have not and never will, I'm just busy and have school. Also, cut like a quarter way around my thumb with an asphalt shingle while working on the roof of the shed I'm building with help from my family. **


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